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Reading and Writing Haiku: A Brief Introduction

The basics of haiku are straightforward, making it accessible to just about everyone.  In English, haiku are traditionally written in the present tense in a format of three lines; the first line is composed of five syllables, the middle line of seven, and the last line of five, for a total of seventeen syllables.  But modern examples often vary from this 5/7/5 format.  The pronoun “I” is generally excluded, as are rhyme and metaphor; punctuation is often unconventional or nonexistent, with dashes or ellipses sometimes serving as breaks between images.

These norms evolved from an earlier poetry form, the renga, a linked, collaborative effort that begins with a three-line verse called hokku.  The great renga master, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), also practiced writing hokku apart from renga, and is now recognized as the “father of haiku.”  But it wasn’t until poet and critic Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) advocated calling these compact verses “haiku” that it was formally acknowledged as an independent literary form.

The main purpose is to express a slice of life and, in so doing, enhance awareness of ourselves and the world.  Mitsu Suzuki, author of A White Tea Bowl: 100 Haiku from 100 Years of Life (Rodmell Press, 2008), has observed that haiku is “a practice of meditation and life…” that “helps us penetrate deeply into ourselves and cleanse ourselves.”

Probably the most well-known example is by Basho:

The old pond.

A frog jumps in —

Plop!

(trans. R.H. Blythe)

In this version of the Japanese original, the fundamental event is depicted through two primary images and an aural cue: out of the waters of stillness comes life, movement, and sound.  The emphasis here is on direct perception — the verse invites the reader to share the essence of the moment, without an obvious authorial persona.  As authors William J. Higginson and Penny Harter point out in The Haiku Handbook (Kodansha USA, 2013), the ideal of the Basho School-haiku is that “both the language of the poem and the mind of the poet should be transparent to the reader….”  Much has been written about these three lines, yet there’s a playful, even celebratory aspect to them that’s often overlooked, and this aspect presages Basho’s later work which stresses karumi, or “lightness of tone.”

While haiku generally doesn’t use the pronoun “I,” it nevertheless recognizes the person and the richness of human feeling — from wonder, ebullience and laughter to loneliness, anger, and sorrow.  Here’s one by Issa that’s somewhere in between the poles:

blossoms everywhere

this New Year’s Day — yet something

remains unopened

(version by j.g.)

A more thorough introduction to the subject would include reading a few anthologies and browsing through a handful of dedicated journals.  Or, you may want to start by reading the “four greats” — Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki.  As you do, you‘ll notice that their work often contains a reference to the season.  This practice stems from the hokku which traditionally contained an image to date it (cherry blossoms in early spring, for instance).  Many haikuists today continue to evoke nature through the use of official “kigo,” words that allude to the seasons and affirm our deep connection to the elements, and to plant, animal, and insect life.

Among the many Japanese poets who expanded the scope of nature-focused haiku is Keneko Tohta (1919-2018), who incorporated his WWII experiences as well as surrealist-like images akin to imagist poetry.  Americans such as Richard Wright, Jack Kerouac, Jane Reichhold, Nick Virgilio, and Elizabeth Searle Lamb continued to broaden the scope so that, now, it’s hard to imagine many topics that would be out of bounds.  Reading old and new haiku from around the world provides an opening into a dialogue that spans time and cultures.  Writing and sharing it with others, both in person at haiku meetings and in print and online journals, we can cultivate that dialogue within ourselves and our communities.

Suggested Reading

Seeds from a Birch Tree, Clark Strand, Hyperion, NY, 1997

Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart, Patricia Donegan, Shambala, 2008

The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa: edited by Robert Hass, The Ecco Press, NJ, 1994

The Genius of Haiku: Readings from R.H. Blythe on Poetry, Life, and Zen: The British Haiku Society, Hokuseido Press, 1995

The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Teach, and Appreciate Haiku: by William J. Higginson and Penny Harter, Kodansha USA, 1985

A Zen Wave: Basho’s Haiku and Zen: Robert Aitken, Weatherhill, 1978

A White Tea Bowl: 100 Haiku from 100 Years of Life, by Mitsu Suzuki, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Norman Fischer (Rodmell Press, 2008)

Resources

Haiku North America sponsors biennial conferences on haiku that include readings, panels, workshops, and more.  www.haikunorthamerica.com

Haiku Poets of Northern California sponsors an annual reading that’s open to the public, and a members only anthology.  www.hpnc.org

The Haiku Society of America promotes “the writing and appreciation of haiku and haiku related forms in English” and publishes the journal Frogpond.  www.hsa-haiku.org

Journals

Frogpond

Wales Haiku Journal

Hedgerow

Bottle Rockets

The Heron’s Nest

Modern Haiku 

Presence

Dodging the Rain

Mayfly

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Briefly Noted

Shiki (1867-1902) was one of the first of the modern Japanese poets to expand the traditional view of haiku as a practice strictly devoted to the natural world.  He introduced subjects as diverse as railroads, war, and baseball, into the mix.  A new book, Haiku as Life: A Kaneko Tohta Omnibus (Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA, 2019), adds to our understanding of modern haiku reform with the work of Keneko Tohta (1919-2018) by presenting over two-hundred translations of this influential critic, teacher, and poet.  In his introduction, Richard Gilbert draws from Tohta’s lectures, in which he suggests that, “If we are only to compose haiku on the life of ‘birds and flowers,’ failing to include the whole of life, not excepting humanity, our range of expression will become narrow as a result.”  Tohta’s early work doesn’t shy away from the war time topics he experienced first-hand such as air raids, torpedoes, gunfire, and the bones of the dead, while later examples incorporate surreal-like images, such as the one that depicts bank clerks as “fluorescent squid” and one that evokes “blue sharks” in a spring garden.  And although Tohta abjured the use of “kigo” or official seasonal words, his oeuvre is interwoven with images from nature, evoking perennial themes of impermanence and change.         

The winter issue of World Haiku Review, edited by Susumu Takiguchi, can now be found online: https://sites.google.com/site/worldhaikureview2/.  Congratulations to Marie Shimane, winner of the Editor’s Choice award for her superb haiku about a winter walk that traverses youth and old age.  WHR’s anthology, Fuga No Makoto: Ten Years of World Haiku, 2008 – 20017, edited by Rohini Gupta, has been published as an ebook and is available through Amazon.  The title, referring to Basho’s dictum “truth and sincerity in art,” is reflected in a soulful array of haiku ranging from classical to modern, and those that fall somewhere in-between.  Editor Takiguchi’s commentary offers both context and insight into some of the writers’ approaches.  Commenting on Lawrence Barrow’s haiku that depicts the swift-moving Kiyotaki River, for instance, she writes that it has “a story to tell, a drama to enjoy, and music to listen to,” while pointing out that it falls into the Japanese tradition of Utamakura — the poetic practice of alluding to beautiful sites in nature.  Recommended for novice and seasoned haijuns alike, as well as readers who just want to sample the diversity of the many voices heard here.       

Hidden River Arts Awards

In the Cool of Morning, was selected as a finalist for the Trilogy Award in Poetry by Hidden River Arts.  Based in Philadelphia, the organization is “dedicated to the service, support, and celebration of all artists.”  www.hiddenriverarts.wordpress.com

Poetry Prompts

Melissa Donovan’s article, A Selection of Poetry Prompts from 1200 Creative Writing Prompts, August 22, 2019, offers a wealth of ideas to jump start your writing.  www.writingforward.com

Warm wishes for a peaceful and happy new year!

 

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The Ordinary in Haiku

To practice haiku is to be attentive to the ordinary, as Basho pointed out.  “If you describe a green willow in the spring rain it will be excellent as a renga verse.  Haikai, however, needs more homely images, such as a crow picking mud snails in a rice paddy,” he wrote.  (The Essential Haiku, Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, edited by Robert Hass).  Here’s a classic haiku by Basho that depicts the ordinary in nature (translated by Burton Watson):

     “Day by day

the barley ripens,

     the skylarks sing.”

In good times the crops ripen and birds sing, yet sometimes we forget how important these seemingly mundane events are.  Haiku such as these invite us to return our attention to everyday  subjects — the changing of the seasons, the music of tree frogs in the branches, mist enveloping the moon, just-washed leeks in a bucket.

The ordinary isn’t without its surprises, as in this observation by Buson:

a shaft of sunlight

on the sleeve of a paper robe

turns it to brocade *

What could be more unassuming than a paper robe?  Yet, in these lines, Buson reveals the ordinary and the extraordinary as one, related by a trick of light, a matter of perception.

Here’s another by Buson:

at year’s end, walking

along Cherry-Flower river —

garbage floating past *

This haiku might have been written today about any number of our polluted rivers.  While the sight of floating garbage may have been a sorry one for Buson, it nevertheless conveys an eye that isn’t attached to romanticized notions of beauty.

This focus on the ordinary in Japanese haiku can be found in Zen, too, as exemplified by the maxim byojo shin, kore michinari (ordinary mind is the way), attributed  to Zen master Mazu Daoyi.  But not all early haiku poets studied Zen, as Stephen Addiss points out in The Art of Haiku.  Many were followers of other sects such as Taoism, Confucianism, or Shintoism.

In this haiku from 1813, Issa evokes a still-popular form of Buddhism through an ordinary, everyday image, suggesting that the The Pure Land may be with us in this very moment, if we would only recognize it.

The Pure Land —

isn’t it here and now

in the morning dew?

*versions by jg

 

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Special Feature

Working in Multiple Genres: an Interview with Aline Soules

Interviewed by Jerome Gagnon

It’s a privilege to have poet and historical fiction writer Aline Soules as my guest today.  Author of Meditation on Woman (bit.ly/meditationonwoman) and Evening Sun: A Widow’s Journey (bit.ly/evening-sun), her poetry has appeared in such publications as Kenyon Review, Houston Literary Review, Poetry Midwest, and the Galway Review.  I thought it would be interesting to see what she’s up to these days and, in particular, to ask about her experience working in multiple genres.

Q. I know you’re a fairly voracious reader.  What are you reading these days? Do you read more for information, amusement, or some other thing?

A. Answer to your last question first:  Yes, yes, and yes—information, amusement, fun, the cereal box, I don’t care.  I read all the time and have several books going at once, depending on where I’m reading—my comfy chair, my outdoor chaise longue, in bed.  Right now, I’m reading the following: The Secret History of SOE, by William Mackenzie and Code Name: Lise: the true story of the woman who became WWII’s most highly decorated spy, by Larry Loftis, both as research for my novel; Lovers and Dancers, by Heather Ingman, for fun; some of the Collected poems of Louis Macneice (always read poetry); conversations with W. S. Merwin, by Michael Wutz and Hal Crimmel (so sad—no more poems from him).  As you can see, anything goes.

Q. Can you share with us some of your favorite poets and novelists?   What’s the appeal for you?  

A. So many poets.  I’ll start with Seamus Heaney, not just for his famous poems, like “The Field,” but also for Beowulf.  I’ve noticed that, in “English” classes, students are often presented with the Iliad or the Odyssey. That’s fine, but why not our English classic, Beowulf?  Heaney’s version is accessible and wonderful.  Gerard Manley Hopkins—I go back to him all the time.  The language, the imagery stun me. Many women poets, like Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Forché, May Sarton, Linda Gregerson, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Elizabeth Bishop, Wislawa Szymborska—I could go on.  But I also like “dead white males,” which isn’t the popular choice these days. I remember the controversy over Robert Bly’s Iron John: a Book about Men, yet it’s proved to be one of his most enduring works, an international best seller and a start to the Mythopoetic men’s movement in the U.S.  There’s a danger in deciding that one’s ethnicity or gender has made one biased, thereby missing out on great language and thought, whether I agree with it all or not.  Today, we have new writers—Ocean Vuong, Sherman Alexie, Amber Tamblyn, Kei Miller, Morgan Parker. I’m trying to understand the appeal of Rupi Kaur, the “Instapoet,” but I admit to struggling with her work.  

Q. You’ve written poetry in the past and now you’re working on an historical novel.  Do you find that any of the skills for writing poetry apply to fiction, or are they very different?

A. Great question.  I use my poetry skills (if “skills” is the right word) in everything I write.  Poetic language is key anywhere—the ability to come up with the right words, the right image, the best phrase to convey a feeling or a thought in a way that resonates with readers and makes what you write memorable.  Writing is an endless struggle (why do we do this, again?), but, somehow, a struggle that’s worthwhile to me. In my current novel, I’m still not at the point of going through my work to struggle with the final language and phrasing, but, when I do (soon), it will be one of the more pleasurable parts of novel writing.  I should add that poetry has also helped in all my writing. During my academic career, I wrote many articles and book chapters, all of which were improved by my poetry practice. In fact, I start all my writing days with poetry, unless I have a pressing deadline.

Q. In an interview, I think Ocean Vuong said that his new novel (On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous) was written, in part, as a letter to his mother.  How do you go about finding the right form (or forms) for a novel, or does it find you?

A. Forms are organic, I think, particularly in poetry, but also in other writing forms.  

front_cover_140503

Even academic writing, with its introduction, method, results, and discussion/conclusion sections enables organic form within the structure.  My novel is historical fiction and I’ve discovered that it’s like a jigsaw puzzle in some ways. I’ve written a full draft (more than once) and I still find myself cutting up the summary of each chapter and moving the pieces around on my table to decide the best order for the story.  I may have a linear approach in my first draft (what happens? what happens next? etc.), but I won’t end up with that.

Q. Are you continuing to write poetry even as you work on a prose project?  If so, do you have any advice for writers on how to balance these two disciplines?

A. I do write poetry—all the time.  As mentioned above, I start with poetry when I sit down to write.  It might be ten minutes or two hours, depending on how the work develops. Then I turn to my novel.  I have no advice for writers on balancing multiple disciplines, other than to suggest that each writer must find his/her/eir path through the process.  When I also wrote academic articles and book chapters, I interspersed those with poetry, too. I’m sure that some writers practice one or the other at any

given time, rather than engaging with more than one at the same time, but starting with poetry gets me in my writing frame.  I’ve also noticed that when I’m “on a roll” with poetry, everything else is “on a roll,” too. The converse is also true.

Q. A sense of Time with a capital “T” seems to be all important in novels.  Even if they’re written conventionally in the past tense, they’re generally supposed to represent the present — or, in the case of historical novels, the “distant” present.  Where is your narrator located in terms of time? Have you encountered any challenges and/or benefits in exploring the notion of time in fiction? 

A. My novel is written in close third, past tense.  I’ve tried other points of view and other tenses, but have decided on this approach.  The idea of “representing the present” is really the idea of engaging the reader so that he/she/ey feels “present” with the main character.  I say character (singular) because I’m working in close third and the story unfolds from her point of view. I’ve never tried omniscient point of view, although the greats in the past used it all the time (Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope).  As for the notion of time in fiction, I’ve never explored this directly, but Alan Lightman has. I particularly love Einstein’s Dream, which I re-read periodically, but any of his books are fabulous.  He engages with physics principles, such as time. After all, who better?  As a physicist and a writer, he’s worked at Harvard and MIT, where he’s currently professor of the practice of the humanities.  

Q. Some writers advise that, once you have an outline, you should write straight through your first draft and not stop for anything, no editing or rewriting at all.  How do you feel about this, and what’s your approach?  

A. Ah, the pantser vs. plotter theme.  The pantser, e.g., Ellen Sussman, goes for what happens?  what happens next? and next? and next? (no outline). After that, she spends a year or two revising. The plotter, e.g., John Grisham, goes for plot everything out before he writes a single word.  After that, he writes. I like a combination. I start with a form of the pantser method, where I write scenes about what comes to me but, not too far into what happens, I make a rough outline. After that, I move back and forth. If I wake up with an idea that excites me, I write the scene while it’s “hot,” whether it’s next in line or not.  Otherwise, I follow and develop my outline and my scenes together.

In the end, what’s important about any method is that your reader makes “discoveries” along with you; otherwise, the reader won’t be engaged.  The action may be too predictable. Of course, some readers like predictability (e.g., romance novels), but, I want surprises. The pantser method leads me to discoveries that surprise me and those are key for my novel because the reader will be surprised, too.  I’m also endlessly amazed at how my characters tell me what to do. They go off on tangents I don’t expect — surprises. And that’s the joy of the written word, isn’t it? To be surprised, expanded, given an emotional journey as well as intellectual stimulation. Reading and writing and the book itself — what a great trio.  What a wonderful world.

 

aline_black_sweater_2017Find Aline Soules online at http://allinesoules.com,@aline elisabeth, https://www.facebook/com/alinesoulesauthor, and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinesoules/. 

For Aline’s Q & A with me, Writing Contemplative Poetry, please visit her blog or the Interview section on this site (see main menu).  

 

(Note: I’ll be on hiatus from the blog through August, resuming in mid-September.  I hope you’ll join me then.)

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In the Marketplace

img_0182-2.jpgI remember running into poet Michael Palmer in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza one afternoon, back in the day when people weren’t glued to their cell phones and walking around the city like zombies. He was offering hand-written poems for a penny each. I wish I still had that poem, but like so many things, it disappeared into the biosphere from which it came. What remains for me, though, is the memory of a friendly street encounter, and the notion that poetry can be much more than a solitary pursuit.

Writing in the Atlantic, Bhavna Patel looks at street poetry around the country, noting that it can sometimes serve a therapeutic purpose (“A Verse to Go, Please: Poets and the Lives They Touch”). Patel tells the story of Neal Ewald, who asked poet Jacqueline Suskin for a poem at the Arcata Farmer’s Market in Northern California where she’d set up a folding chair and was balancing “a manual typewriter on her knees…. A small sign next to her read, ‘Poem Store — Your Subject, Your Price.’” What Ewald wanted was “a five-dollar poem about being underwater,” Suskin said. Rereading the impromptu poem while sitting in his car, memories of his late wife, Wendy, came “flooding” back to him, Patel writes. Eventually, he commissioned Suskin to write a longer poem to honor his wife’s memory.

San Francisco resident Mc Allen dedicates one day a month to “free-range poetry,” writes Caillie Millner in the San Francisco Chronicle (“Taking Time for a Line of Rhyme”). Standing at a favorite spot on Cole Street in front of the Reverie Café, Allen can be heard calling to passersby, “Would you like to hear a poem? It’s completely free.” One afternoon he read Tom Wayman’s, “Did I Miss Anything?” to a bicyclist and Mary Oliver’s “Humpbacks” to a group of “tech bros,” Millner notes. “I’d say that one in every dozen or so people will stop,” said Allen, who brings a trove of poetry books along with him in a toolbox and recites from a variety of poets. “You never know who needs a poem in their life at that moment.”

“Entangle”

“Sometimes I prefer not to untangle it,

I prefer it to remain disorganized,

because it’s richer that way,

like a certain shrubbery I pass each day…”

– Tony Hoagland

(1953 – 2018)

Plumbago, grape ivy, and morning glory vines have taken over a largely untended corner of the yard. At sundown, the blue flowers of the plumbago take on an electric glow against the faded violets and purples of the morning glories. When I consider this rampant mix, I think of the late Tony Hoagland’s poem, “Entangle,” which first appeared in the Paris Review. It’s a beautiful, wrenching work. It’s not just about the confluence of branches and flowers, of course, but memory and mortality, and our deep connections to each other. In his poem, “Lucky,” Hoagland” tells us… “If you are lucky in this life,/ you will get to help your enemy/the way I got to help my mother…you will get to raise the spoon /of pristine, frosty ice cream/ to the trusting mouth of your old enemy/because the taste buds at least are not broken/because there is a bond between you/and sweet is sweet in any language.” These are poems that draw you back for a closer look, to savor their details and the way they convey our foibles and frailty.

Calls for Poetry and More

Nowhere Magazine is sponsoring a travel writing contest for a poem, short story, or essay “that possesses a powerful sense of place.” The prize is $1,000 and publication. Submit online by December 31. http://www.nowheremag.com/contests

Quercus Review Press out of Modesto Junior College has announced their annual Poetry Book Award. The prize is $1,000, publication, and fifteen author copies. Deadline, December 28th. For details, visit http://www.quercusreviewpress.com

Willow Books is offering two prizes of $1,000 and publication for “a book of poetry and a book of fiction or creative nonfiction by writers of color.” Submit by December 15th. http://www.willowlit.net/willowbooks-literature-awards

Bayou Literary Magazine will award two prizes of $1,000 each for a poem and a short story. Submit by January 1st. http://www.bayoumagazine.org

Applications for the James Merrill House Writer-in-Residence Program in Stonington, Connecticut will be accepted until January 8th, 2019. Writers of all genres, including translators, are eligible for the four to six week residencies that come with a stipend. For more information, visit http://jamesmerrillhouse.org/residency/writer-in-reseidenceprogram

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I’m happy to announce that Rumors of Wisdom was selected for the Concrete Wolf Louis Book Award and is slated to be published early in 2019.  My gratitude to the judge, Timons Esaias, and to Lana Hechtman Ayers, Managing Editor of Concrete Wolf Press, for their belief in this project (www.concretewolf.com).  Named in honor of Ayers’ grandfather, who inspired her love of poetry, “the award is for a first full-length book by a poet age fifty or over.”  Rumors was approximately three years in the making, although a few of the poems go back farther than that.  It went through several versions and various titles, as I continued to revise and add new poems. In the process, I learned a lot about what makes a cohesive collection.  Like Spell of the Ordinary, Rumors is essentially about mindfulness.  It suggests that deep attention to the moment offers a portal into the “enduring mutable,” that nature and the human spirit are salvageable.

Just received my copy of Arts, jointly published by the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and the University of St. Thomas.  The visual arts are represented here by photographs, drawings, and paintings, along with in-depth articles that explore the work of Frida Kahlo, the making of mandalas, and art as ministry in an immigrant detention center.  An article on The Mount Tabor Ecumenical Center for Art and Spirituality (Villa Via Sacra) in Barga, Italy, traces the Center’s origins and the connection between creativity and religious faith, while poetry and reviews round out the selections.  This is an inspiring and visually inviting issue. www.societyarts.org

Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet, by Joan Halifax (Flatiron Books, 2018), offers insight into the “bivalent qualities” of what she terms Edge States, including altruism, empathy, and engagement.  Citing experiences from the Civil Rights and Antiwar movements, as well as from her work as a medical anthropologist and Buddhist leader, Halifax describes what can happen when good intentions lead to despair and burnout, and what we can do about it.  Standing at the Edge is a wise and practical guide for navigating challenging times, and a valuable resource for teachers, caregivers, and those in the helping professions.

The Summer Writing Program at the Truro Center for the Arts on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, offers workshops in a variety of genres, including poetry, memoir, travel writing, and playwriting.  Some of the poets scheduled to participate this year are Robert Pinksy, Lorna Blake, Rebecca Fost, and Peter Campion. Be sure to bring your sunscreen. www.info@castlehill.org

Hannah Aizenman, poetry coordinator for the New Yorker, addresses the questions: “From a craft standpoint, what causes you to accept a poem?” “What advice do you have for new poets who are submitting work?” and “How many rejections have you faced and how do you deal with them?”  www.frontierpoetry.com

The Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence Program offers residencies in March, 2019, to three women writers at Wharton’s former estate in Massachusetts, the Mount.  Included are a stipend of $1,000, lodging, and work space. www.edithwharton.org/visit/the-edith-wharton-writer-in-residence-program

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Poets Illya Kaminsky, Bruce Beasley, and Alexandra Teague are among the faculty of the Centrum Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, which will take place July 15 – 23 at Fort Worden State Park in Washington.  Scholarships are available. For more information, visit www.centrum.org/theport-townsend-writers-conference.

It was fun returning to SFSU to attend the Creative Writing Student Awards Reading and Reception, and to share my memories of Kay Boyle.  The campus never looked better, just the way a bustling urban campus should look: the expanded library sparkles in its glass skin and the new humanities building adds a note of verticality.  My thanks to Paul Hoover and Maxine Chernoff of the Poetry Center for making me feel so welcome, and congratulations to all of this year’s graduates and honorees. I thought that all of the students who read were amazing, and everyone showed the kind of originality and attention to detail that can make a writing life.       

The Southern Humanities Review is sponsoring the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, open through June, to honor the late Jake Adam York…WaterWood Press is sponsoring the Carolyn Forche’ Prize for Humanitarian Poetry, open through mid-August…The Spokane Prize for Short Fiction offers an award of $2,000 and publication, open until June 15th…Information on hundreds of writing grants and awards can be found at www.pw.org.

Reading Reynolds Price’s preface to his Collected Poems (1997), I came across a reference to Poetry as a Means of Grace, by C.G. Osgood.  “Conceived in the 1940s as lectures to young Princeton theologians, Osgood’s still keenly provocative chapters propose that, in a hectic and book-filled world, a thoughtful person might well choose a single inexhaustible poet and fix upon that poet’s work as a lifelong spring of refreshment in the driest times.”  Price’s choice, early on, was Milton, but he also had a special kinship with Dickenson. When I met him, Price was fresh from his first literary success and teaching a class in fiction writing. At the time, I had no idea he wrote poetry, that you could do both, but it’s clear that poetry remained for him a saving grace through youth and old age, health and disability.  In “Pears,” he depicts the ephemerality of experience and memory with quick brushstrokes, and in “Neighbors,” inhabits his dilemma in the form of inquiry:

“My name is Edward Reynolds Price,

So here on the ward, I’m Edward Price.

 

Last night I looked at my new neighbor’s door.

He’s Edward Reynolds, plain as ink.

 

Which one is the other’s doppelganger?

Scapegoat?  Porter of an alternate fate?”

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the-golden-gate-bridge-1956459_1920“The Beat Goes On: Celebrating the Bay Poetry Collection” is the title of an exhibit at California State University East Bay (Hayward, CA), featuring publications from the library’s special collections.  Highlighting the work of “Beat” luminaries such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder, it traces the development of contemporary poetry in San Francisco and the Bay Area. While Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Publishing has played a pivotal role on the local literary scene since the early 1950’s, contributions by others such as Panjandrum Press and Sixteen Rivers Press are also featured.  (Runs through December.)

“Cherries, After,” a sense-memory poem that pulls together images from my visit to a small farm near Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was selected for the 2018 Robert Frost Poetry Prize, sponsored by the Frost Foundation.  Many thanks to the judges for this honor, and my gratitude to Executive Director Jessica Sanchez and President Jim Knowles for their efforts in promoting this annual contest in celebration of Frost’s poetry. Like a lot of people, the first time I encountered his work was in a high school English class.  We were studying “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Although I admired both poems, it was “Snowy” that held me with its imagery, the resonance of its rhyme scheme, and the tinkle of harness bells.

Poet, translator, and founder of Copper Canyon Press, Sam Hamill, “died on April 14th at his home in Anacortes, Washington,” according to an obituary by Daniel E. Slotnik of the New York Times.  He was seventy-four years old. As a teenager in Utah, Hamill ran away from an abusive environment and made his way to San Francisco where he met poet Kenneth Rexroth who “helped him give up drugs and taught him about poetry — kindnesses that Hamill said changed his life,” Slotnik wrote.  Known for his sensitive translations of poets such as Wang Wei and Matsuo Basho, Hamill went on to publish several collections of his own poetry and initiated a national protest by poets and others against the Iraq war. In his poem, “True Peace,” he wrote, “Not for me, Nirvana./ This suffering world is mine,/ mine to suffer in it’s grief.”  Recipient of PEN’s Freedom to Write First Amendment Award, among other honors, his most recent collection, After Morning Rain, will be published later this year by Tiger Bark Press, according to the Times.    

“Longing has its own quiet place

in the human heart, but love

is sometimes rapturous, noisy,

almost uncivilized, and knows

no boundaries, no borders.”

from After Morning Rain,

          by Sam Hamill

Headlands Center for the Arts is now accepting applications through June for residencies in 2019.  Poets, fiction and creative nonfiction writers, and other artists are eligible. Located on the scenic coast of Marin County, CA, just outside of San Francisco, “Headlands” offers airfare for qualified applicants, a private room in a shared house, studio space, five meals per week, and a monthly stipend of $500.  Residencies are for periods of from four to ten weeks. For details, visit www.headlands.org.

News

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Just received the Spring/Summer issue of The Journal of the Academy of American Poets.  In addition to poems by Kwame Dawes, Marie Howe, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil, there are essays by Jane Hirshfield and Jenny Xie, a conversation, “Why Poetry, Why Now?” between Elizabeth Alexander and Maria Popova, and a selection of “Books Noted” by Major Jackson.  A good read and one of the best resources for becoming better acquainted with the range of contemporary American poetry. If you’re not already a subscriber and want to learn more, visit www.poets.org.

Congratulations to Kim Reyes, winner of the first annual Kay Boyle Poetry of Witness Award for her poem, “The Body.”  The contest was judged by Paul Hoover, Acting Director of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University. Reyes, who is completing her MFA in Creative Writing at SFSU, has “just received an offer of her first book publication by noted Bay Area publisher, Omnidawn Publishing,” according to Hoover.

The National Association for Poetry Therapy will take place April 26 – 29 in Chaska, MN.  This year’s theme is “Poetry Therapy in a Changing World: Pathways to Growth, Healing, and Social Justice.”  Visit www.poetrytherapy.org.